Elder Justin Taylor: Taste of Heaven

Hello! Hope you all have had a wonderful past week. I have had such a fun past week; its been crazy and busy, but its been fun. It is always fun having other elders stay with you; we have had some good times together! Elder Jewett and Elder McSpadden are great elders; one was with me in the MTC and the other is still in training... both just awesome elders.

When I was out visiting someone just a few days ago I was sharing a spiritual thought. I happened to flip to a random scripture and felt impresed to share it. The scripture is in the Book of Mormon, Alma 17: 2-3 . I have shared this plenty of times and have taught the importance of searching the scriptures, prayer, and fasting but not exactly what I'm about to share. So Alma and his brethern, the "sons of Mosiah" (or I'd like to say his "best friends") were reunited on their was back to Zarahemla. I'll put in a few bits and pieces of the verses:

"Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his bretheren; and what added to his joy, was that they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of truth; they were men of sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently that they may know the word of God. But this was not all, that had given themselves to much prayer and fasting".

So it is pretty straight forward right? Well, 2 weeks ago I was emailing my best friend Nathan who is coming home from his mission this week or next. He was saying how excited he is for me to come home and for us to just talk about our missions and our experiences that we had. I got so excited to do that, and realized that if this was before our missions there was no way you would see us both this excited to talk about the Gospel and share these kind of stories. We truly have changed so much and so did Alma and his bretheren while they were separated. Well, that is on a minor scale compared to a lifetime of being away from someone. To me this scriputre is giving us a "taste of heaven"; a taste of the Celestial kingdom. Let us be honest here; we are not always going to be in good touch with everyone we happen to know. Life happens and we move away or lose tract of people we care about; but to think that in the next life we can be in the Celestial kingdom and see them there and be reunited. Our joy will be great, not just to see them, but to see that they are still my brothers and sisters "in the Lord." That in their lifetime they did "wax strong in the knowledge of truth." and searched the scriptures, fasted, prayed often and followed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See that right there is true joy... knowing that. I'm so excited to see my friends who are serving missions; not for the fact to see them but to get a "little taste of heaven", to have much joy in knowing that we have changed and become more converted to the Lord, which in turn brings us closer together and unites us. We do not want empty chairs in the Celestial kingdom. We can help others to know what truly brings us together and brings us true and eternal joy and that is this Gospel; and following it and trying our best. I know for me this scripture has taught me a lot and I'm grateful for it. Hopefully this makes sense and I hope that I'm writing it in a way that helps too ... but, if not, I'm sorry because it makes sense in my head! haha

Everyone have a great week. Speak to ones you care about this week with a different mindset. Instead of first talking about the game... talk about the Gospel; it will bring you both more joy.

Love always,

Elder Taylor